Monday, September 16, 2013
Haywire formed in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1982 by Dave Rashed, Paul MacAusland, Marvin Birt, Scott Roberts and Ronnie Switzer. While most of the members of the band had been unaltered from the start, drummer Sean Kilbride was the fourth drummer in the group's short history. Ron "Bumble" LeBlanc had replaced the original Haywire drummer Scott Roberts in 1984. He remained with the band through their demo stages, selftitled 1985 EP, and can be heard playing on two cuts of the bands first record with Attic. LeBlanc was replaced by Mac Cole when he decided to move on from the group and pursue a formal education. Cole only played two months with the band, when Haywire's long-time friend Kilbride became available for the job. In the summer of 1986 the group signed up Kilbride and successfully pursued a record contract with Attic.
Their first full-length album, Bad Boys, went platinum in Canada, while the title track became a Top 40 hit. The following year, they released Don't Just Stand There, which also went platinum and contained their biggest ever hit, the hard-driving "Dance Desire". Throughout the late 1980s, Haywire toured with other popular Canadian rockers such as Helix, Honeymoon Suite and Kim Mitchell. They also represented Canada in the World Popular Song Festival in Japan, where "Dance Desire" won the award for best song. Despite their success in Canada, and interest Stateside from Doc McGee (Management for Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe and Skid Row); Q-Prime; and Chrysalis Records, they were unable to secure a US recording contract.
The follow-up album, Nuthouse, was recorded in Norway with Bjorn Nessjo at the production helm; one of Europe's most sought-after producers at the time. It was guitar-driven, had a much harder edge and was considered to be the style of music the band wanted to pursue, rather than the soft-rock/pop-rock their record label thought was necessary. Though it hit platinum sales it did not generate as much interest as their previous albums, and received the least amount of support from the record label. They produced one more album, 1992's Get Off, which was critically well-received, but still did not fuel the support from the record company (financial and otherwise) that they needed. After contractual struggles, the group refused to re-sign with their label Attic. To fulfill their contractual obligations with Haywire, Attic released a greatest hits CD in 1993 entitled Wired - Best of.
The band has had their albums re-issued on CD through Unidisc Music Inc.. In November 2006, Haywire were awarded the Music Prince Edward Island Lifetime Achievement Award.
